Rising Virginia trio Palmyra recently announced that their debut album Restless will arrive on March 28th via Oh Boy Records. This week, the band will hit SXSW and release a new single, “Palm Readers.” Like the other two pre-release songs, “Shape I’m In” and “Arizona,” the track will come with a live performance video – watch HERE. The series of performances illustrates not only the band’s incredible prowess in the live space, but their deep connection to one another. “Palm Readers,” evocative of early Bright Eyes or Sunny Day Real Estate, features potent and urgent lyrics by member Sasha Landon. Of the track they say, “I started writing the lyrics for ‘Palm Readers’ in the winter of 2022. I was fresh off of a big self-reckoning out-patient mental health program experience at a hospital in my hometown.
For me, it’s about hard lessons, and about being so deep in the weeds that you can’t tell there are still other folks around you. I was learning about how to tend to myself, and about how consequential the way we talk to ourselves is for our mental health, and I think this song is trying to paint a picture of my internal dialogue at the time. I remember sitting with a friend one night that January and listening to her tell a story about a palm reader approaching her at a hole-in-the-wall dive bar; he looked at the lines on her hand and said something along the lines of, ‘you’ve lived a lot of lives, you must be tired…you’re almost there.’”
Palmyra’s members met in a college music class. All three members- Landon, Teddy Chipouras and Mānoa Bell grew up in Virginia, all three excellent songwriters, singers and players. But rather than starting their own projects, they formed a trio built on democracy, respect and equal agency. They immediately hit the road and found deep inspiration in the connection they felt communing with their audiences each night. But becoming an adult while living out of a suitcase is complicated, and it’s these experiences that inform the music on Restless. Once they were prepared to write the album, heading to a big city recording studio felt like an impossibility and instead they chose to set up shop in a rural Virginia lakehouse, making for an album that is immediate, warm and unadorned.
Palmyra may have roots in the South, their music steeped in the sounds of traditional instruments and shaped by their time there, but their spirit defies easy categorization. Palmyra is also a band that confronts complex, often painful topics in their lyrics: suicide, gender dysphoria, identity, and the relentless pressure of capitalism. Their songs, which shift from folk to post-rock and even flirt with emo, reflect a band unafraid to push boundaries. In this way, Palmyra joins the ranks of Southern acts like Julien Baker, Band of Horses, and Cat Power—artists who’ve redefined what it means to come from the South, offering a sound that’s as expansive and evolving as the region itself. It’s this admixture of place and perspective that define the material on Restless.
Palmyra will play a string of SXSW showcases and parties before they officially kick off their headline tour this March 27th in Pittsburgh, PA and wrap May 8th in Amherst, MA. Highlights include The Basement in Nashville, TN on April 3rd, DC9 in Washington DC on April 29th and The Mercury Lounge in NYC on May 1st. They’ll play an album release show at The Jefferson Theatre in Charlottesville, VA on the album’s release day, March 28th. The band will also play at Iron Blossom Music Festival alongside artists like Vampire Weekend, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, and The Lumineers this September. Find tickets here: https://www.palmyratheband.com/
